


Christmas Countdown

by mage_989



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-08 07:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8835094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_989/pseuds/mage_989
Summary: A collection of short stories inspired by different holiday prompts.





	1. Stable

The frigid December air had settled in early that year, but Rudy hardly noticed it as he worked around the well heated stable, brushing manes, put on bridles and bells, and cleaning up the bucket of water he’d spilt…twice.

Still Brett was smiling as he came in to get old Mabel. 

“Thanks for all your help, Rudy.”

“Anytime.”

Mabel snorted as she was led outside her breath creating wisps of fog in the morning air. Just then Rudy heard the crunch of gravel and the screams of delight that announced the arrival of their guests. Children who without the events Brett put on might see Christmas as just another cold miserable day in the shelters.

Rudy stayed where he was for the moment though, surrounded by the smell of hay and dirt. It was comforting really. He spent his days around technology of all kinds, and he loved that of course, but another part of him loved simplicity too; of making tea in an old fashioned kettle with no electric cord in sight. Of remembering that the horses that filled the stable were once the only way to travel and not the precinct’s fast cars with their screaming red and blue lights. It reminded him of old family vacations and happier times.

The jingling of the bells on the sleigh shook him from his nostalgia, and told him he was late. So quickly making sure to tuck the bag of presents safely away for the end of the day Rudy went out to join the festivities.


	2. Carol

_“Here we come a caroling among the leaves so green.”_

“There are no leaves.”

_“Here we come a wandering so fair to be seen.”_

John snorted.

Rudy and Dorian stopped singing abruptly and turned to glare at their surly companion.

“John, really we do better getting donations without your commentary.”

“Yeah, John, I thought you liked Christmas.”

“I do,” John said, and stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets. “I like being inside with warm fires and hot chocolate.”

“But it’s for charity.”

John just shivered as the wind picked up. “I’ll give at the office, and if you two need me I’ll be waiting in the car.”

John trudged off and his two friends turned back to their work.

“Well that was rude, but at least we have a chance to practice our harmony in peace now. I thought we were getting quite good, my friend.”

Dorian smiled. “I agree,” he said and glanced into their collection tin that had a fair amount of change even with John’s far less than charitable behaviour. 

_“Love and joy come to you and to you your wassail too. And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year.”_

_“ And God send you a Happy New Year.”_


	3. Fruitcake

Sandra came into the precinct’s small kitchen and frowned as she saw John sitting there with a plate of homemade baked goods.

“John, I thought you were cutting back on the sweets after your last physical.”

“I’ll start it in the New Year, Sandra, just like everyone else. Besides it’s not just sweets here I have fruit too,” he said, indicating the large piece of fruitcake on his plate.

“Candied fruit does not count, John.”

“So you don’t want the piece of peppermint bark I saved you? Okay I’ll just eat all that antioxidant rich dark chocolate myself.”

She glared, dropped into the chair next to him, and grabbed the piece of bark off his plate.

“We both start taking the stairs on January 1st.”


	4. Icicles

“Well, John, what do you think?”

John looked up at the shack that sat out on the lake, huge icicles hanging down from its sharply slopped roof that glistened in the early morning sunrise.

“It looks really small.”

“Well sure you don’t need much space for ice fishing,” Edward said, clamping a strong hand on his son’s shoulder. “We’ll be in there tight and you can tell me all about that field trip you took last week while we wait for the fish to bite

John smiled. A whole day of just him and dad hanging out together and so far out in the middle of nowhere that work couldn’t call him even if they wanted to? He knew it was going to be the best day ever.


	5. Red

Red was Sandra’s favourite colour. She didn’t often get to wear it as being a captain meant a certain amount of conservative dress was mandatory.

During December though all bets were off. The brightest red nail polishes in her collection were pulled out, and if they had glitter in them too so much the better. She found red clips and ties for her hair. Bracelets and the occasional burgundy belt were worn. She even found a miniature Christmas tree with only red ornaments and one tiny blinking light on the top that she displayed proudly on her desk.

She also laughed out loud when it proved to be so distracting to John one day that he walked straight into Richard’s MX fell to the floor in an undignified heap.


	6. Mistletoe

“Your knight in shining armour has arrived, my ladies!” Anton announced with flourish as he pulled up to Kira and her daughter in a crowded mall parking lot.

“Thank you so much, Anton, you’re a life saver,” Kira said as she got her shopping bags and Aimee in the backseat. 

“Anything for you, did you get a hold of the towing company?”

“Yeah the earliest they can come is tomorrow if I didn’t want to pay extra fees and I don’t.”

As she slid into the front seat she noticed the new decoration hanging off his rear view mirror.

“Subtle aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “Well there were practically giving them away at the store.” 

“Come here you.”

She kissed him soundly until a car behind them honked impatiently.


	7. Frost

It was unseasonable cold in the city, but the frost that covered everything in a layer of sticky white needles was nothing compared to the frosty attitude in the Kennex household as Internal Affairs went over the whole place with a fine toothed comb and interviewed Edward for the fifth time.

John spent the entire time with his arms crossed and glaring at the interlopers.

When they finally left John’s mother Edna was slowly able to coax the sulking teenager to more pleasant activities, and they went back to trimming the tree. Edward though was called away on an emergency.

“Why, dad?” John asked, as Edward put on his jacket. “Why go when they’re treating you like this?”

“Because I know myself, John, and I know the truth. It’s all going to work out just fine you’ll see, but until then I’m going to continue helping people no matter what anyone else thinks.”

It was a conversation John would think back on years later.

_“Their whole unit got busted in an IA investigation and the only one left standing…was my dad. That was who he was.”_


	8. Mittens

Sandra knew she was supposed to be working. There were at least a dozen reports that needed to be finished and leads to follow up on, but all she was managing to do was looking at her left hand every other minute.

Even in winter there was still a pale circle from where the ring used to sit.

It was for the best and logically she knew that, but it didn’t stop it from hurting. Or stop her from wondering if she’d really made the right decision.

She was jolted out of her melancholy suddenly as a pair of thick stripped mittens were dumped on her desk. Sandra glanced up into her partner’s eyes.

“With the heat constantly going down in here I thought you might need them. And with your hands covered it might keep you from focusing too much on that asshole what’s his face.”

Sandra smiled for the first time in a long time.

“Thanks, John.”

“Anytime.”


	9. Snowflakes

John sat in his home in a rare moment of peace and quiet. Staring out the window, a warm mug in his hands, watching as the snow fell outside.

It was the quintessential winter snow, with thick and fluffy flakes; the kind that filled the landscapes of winter themed paintings and made for great snowmen, snowballs, and snow-forts.

It was coming down heavy too, covering everything in sight. John smiled and, in the privacy of his own head, was willing to admit that is was really beautiful. He hoped it quit by morning though so he didn’t have to drive in it.


	10. Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU Eric and Judy get their happy ending.

It was a chilly afternoon and Eric waited nervously on the park bench as the holiday shoppers rushed by, heading to the mall across the street. He should never have agreed to meet Judy. He was hideous, she was going to take one look at him and run off screaming.

He jumped as his phone went off and scrambled off the bench to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Eric, it’s Judy.”

“Um hi, where are you?”

“Right here.”

Eric jumped and spun around to see Judy standing there bundled up in a set of blue gloves, hat, and scarf, with her phone pressed to her ear.

“Sorry to scare you I just needed a way to know exactly where you were I…well I’m…”

It was then that Eric noticed the thin white cane in clutched in her gloved hand and it all made sense.

“You’re blind.”

Her head bowed and she blinked furiously. “I should have told you before, but I didn’t want to ruin what we had. I thought if you found out like this maybe you would see that I’m still capable and that it doesn’t define me and-”

She was cut off as Eric hugged her hard.

“I think you’re the most beautiful, wonderful, woman I’ve ever met, and your being blind doesn’t change that. In fact I…I feel better because I thought you would take one look at my ugly mug and walk away.”

She pressed a hand to face, letting her fingers trace his features.

“I don’t care what you look like I’m just so happy we found each other.”

“Me too.”


	11. Parade

Dorian walked carefully around the parade floats and band members as they worked to get in position before the 9am start time. He helped check security points and any areas people might hide in to disrupt or attack anyone during the annual holiday parade.

He smiled at the small crowd that had come out early to get the best seats.

“Wow you’re a bot!” One boy exclaimed and came running over.

“Yes I am,” Dorian replied, and flashed his lights.

“Cool, are you going to be in the parade?”

“No, I’m here to make sure everyone stays safe.”

“Oh, that makes you a safety man! You get a sticker!”

The boy pulled out a small sticker from his pocket and handed over to Dorian. Dorian took it and admired the cartoon safety bear drawn on it.

“The firemen came to talk to us at class last week and said we should give them to anyone being safe.”

“Thank you.”

As the boy was called back by his father Dorian sent a request to do a classroom education day demonstration himself, preferably with someone who was better with people than John, maybe Valerie would want to do it.


	12. Tinsel

“I’m telling you, John, your side is uneven.”

“And I’m telling you, Cooper, my side only looks like that because you used too much silver tinsel.”

“I did not!”

“That one branch is drooping!”

“Tinsel is supposed to cover everything.”

“No, it’s supposed to be even on the branches and look like snow.”

The argument continue for well over on hour and by the end of it tinsel had been strewn all over the floor, no other ornaments had managed to get added to the tree, and everyone in the dorms agreed that neither Cooper nor John was allowed to help decorate the lounge ever again.


	13. Jumpers

Valerie loved the jumper Richard had given her last Christmas and was determined to reciprocate the following year. Unfortunately while Chromes could be engineered to be creatively inclined learning the skills specific to any particular art form still took time and practice.

So when Valerie naively set the goal of knitting a sweater she neglected to account for certain things like wood versus metal needles, yarn weight, and the fact that all the determination in the world wouldn’t fix a row of stitches with a half dozen dropped ones in it.

So she went smaller, first trying for a blanket, then a scarf. By the time Christmas rolled around Richard received two, almost, evenly shaped single colour pot holders. His mother offered all kinds of tips for improvement and Valerie took them graciously, because it was kind of nice to actually struggle to learn something.

She still smiled with pride though when Richard used the potholders to bring out the turkey to the table.


	14. Stuffing

Richard heaved the last pan of stuffing into its holder and then looked down the line of food with pride. They’d really outdone themselves this year, and with luck there would leftovers, because that meant no one had been turned away.

He smiled as he saw a familiar volunteer bringing out another tray of food.

“Nice to see you on the other side of the counter, Lucas.”

“It’s sure nice to be here.”

“Still got the sunglasses I see.”

“Hey, man sunlight reflects off snow I’m just being smart.”

“Right.”

“You know, Detective, I never did thank you for all you did after that guy kidnapped me. Helping me get my life all back together so…thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Further conversation was cut off as the doors opened and people started coming in for what was perhaps their first real meal that hadn’t come from a pill in a long time.

Richard smiled as he watched Lucas spoon out mashed potatoes. Working to give others that little ray of hope and support he had been given.

“So shines a good deed in a weary world.”


End file.
